1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for supporting sales of a product in an unmanned manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an Internet-based mail order (an Internet shopping) has been increasingly used for buying and selling a product, instead of a real shopping in a real shop. In the Internet shopping, a system for buying and selling is employed in which a customer selects a product in a virtual shop on the Internet, adds a selected product to a virtual shopping cart, instructs a shipping of the product, and makes a payment by a bank or with a credit card. The Internet shopping is increasingly used by a number of customers because the Internet shopping is advantageous for the customer in that the customer can purchase a product 24 hours a day without going to a shop in a distant place.
However, in the Internet shopping, it is cumbersome for the customer to find a desired product if the desired product is listed in a deeper level of a page hierarchy in a site of an online shop. In addition, it is difficult for a seller to appeal a special feature of a product to the customer. Therefore, the Internet shopping is disadvantageous compared to the real shopping in that the customer cannot look around the shop to find out a desired product and it is difficult for a seller to appeal a product to the customer. Furthermore, because a screen size for the Internet shopping is limited, it is difficult to view a product in a full scale and to feel a real texture of the product.
The biggest difference between the Internet shopping and the real shopping is that whether the customer can find out a most suitable product from among alternative products based on a look of real products. Furthermore, as described above, because the screen size is limited in the Internet shopping, it is difficult to view a product in a full scale, to feel a real texture of the product, and to determine whether the product matches the customer. Therefore, the Internet shopping is not suitable for a type of purchase in which the customer tries to find a desired product by checking a real texture or by determining a matching size.
Although a bending machine can be another system for selling a product other than the real shopping, a payment process is exclusively automated and there is no other means for checking a product from various aspects, for checking other variations of the product, and for checking whether the product matches other products or whether the product is suitable for the customer. Therefore, the bending machine is still not suitable for finding out a desired product for a purchase.
A different type of system for selling a product is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-118269, in which a product is displayed in a showcase or on a screen, like for the product displayed in a real shop, so that a customer can purchase or reserve a product by a portable terminal.
However, there is a problem in the conventional technologies that it is difficult to provide the above service to general consumers because product information cannot be obtained if the consumers do not have a portable terminal device. Furthermore, it is still difficult to provide a customer with the means for checking a product from various aspects, for checking other products, and for checking whether the product matches other products or whether the product is suitable for the customer.
On the other hand, there is a problem in the real shopping that a customer cannot purchase a product when the shop is closed, even if the customer can view a showcase of the shop and wants to purchase the product. There is another problem that the customer still cannot purchase a product if a staff of the shop is too busy to assist the customer, even when the shop is open. At this state, the customer and the shop unwillingly lose a sales opportunity.